Food poisoning increases as imports rise Study blames World Trade Organization policies, quotas By Jon E. Dougherty © 1999 WorldNetDaily.com A new study blames the rising number of food poisoning cases throughout the United States on World Trade Organization-style import/export rules that prohibit government inspection agencies from adequately examining food imports.
The Paragon Foundation, a New Mexico-based conservative think tank, says the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta is reporting "an all-time high in food poisoning," and added that those statistics "continue to rise." The suspected cause is the poor content-labeling practices used by other nations, the inability of government inspectors to examine enough imported meat and produce, and the globalization of food production. "America historically has enjoyed the safest food supply in the world," Jay Walley, the foundation's communications director, told WorldNetDaily. But he said researchers at Paragon concluded the phenomenon was largely due to quotas imposed by the World Trade Organization, as well as "a WTO ruling that it is illegal for a government to ban a product based on the way it is produced, according to (World Trade Organization Director General Michael) Moore." The report noted that trade globalization politics are so intense -- as evidenced at the recent World Trade Organization summit in Seattle -- "that U.S. regulatory agencies have largely ignored the quality and safety of foodstuffs arriving on our shores." "Additionally," the study said, "there is lack of action by most elected representatives to support current legislation that would enable consumers to identify where food is produced." Walley said the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit organization that examines health and environmental issues, reported a much higher number of import violations than the United States Department of Agriculture. According to government figures, import violations on produce and meat products occur in about 3.1 percent of imports. However, the working group found that "violation rates were high for many important sources of major fruits and vegetables, including Mexican strawberries (18.4 percent), Mexican head lettuce (15.6 percent), Guatemalan blackberries (14.6 percent), Argentine pears (12.9 percent), Mexican carrots (12.3 percent), Chilean kiwi (11.7 percent), Mexican leaf lettuce (11.3 percent), and Mexican green beans (9.4 percent)." Also, the study said, "nearly 49 percent of the pears imported from Korea were contaminated with illegal pesticides, as were 40.8 percent of green peas from Guatemala, and 34.1 percent of the peas from China." See chart. In his Mar. 16 testimony to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development and Related Agencies, Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan said that despite the country's historically secure food supply, "we continue to face challenges to the safety of our food." Americans "now consume more fresh produce and seafood and demand a constant supply throughout the year," Koplan said. "To meet the demand, an ever increasing proportion of our food is imported, especially from developing parts of the world. As a result, we are being exposed to pathogens not commonly found in the United States, as demonstrated by the Cyclospora outbreaks associated with raspberries imported from Guatemala." Koplan said the Centers for Disease Control, in conjunction with other federal agencies, has developed a new outbreak surveillance system known as FoodNet, designed to "to capture a more accurate and complete picture of trends in the occurrence of illness caused by priority foodborne pathogens." This increase in food poisoning in the United States was predicted by the World Health Organization two years ago. In the October-December 1997 issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, World Health Organization researchers concluded that "a consequence of the increase in transnational trade, travel, and migration is the greater risk of cross-border transmission of infectious diseases." "With more than one million people crossing international borders every day, and with the globalization of food production, manufacturing and marketing, the risk of infectious disease transmission is greater," the WHO study said. "Food, a major trade commodity, is also an important vehicle for transmission of infectious diseases. Because food production, manufacturing and marketing are now global, infectious agents can be disseminated from the original point of processing and packaging to locations thousands of miles away." One recent CDC study concluded that "foodborne diseases cause approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year." Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage, an Idaho Republican, believes more needs to be done to ensure the safety of imported food. In a speech delivered to the House Agriculture Committee on Apr. 28, she told members that "every month, without any way of knowing, Americans unknowingly eat over 320 million pounds of meat raised in parts of the world as far away as Hungary, Uruguay and Croatia." "The safety of our nation's meat supply is something that we must never take for granted," she said, adding, "We already label just about everything we buy." Chenoweth-Hage has introduced H.R. 1144, the Country of Origin Meat Labeling Act of 1999, which, she said, was designed to "provide American consumers with important information they want and need" about food products they consume. "My legislation would ensure American homemakers know where their meat comes from; and recognize American producers' high commitment to meat quality and food safety," she said. Jon E. 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